FTB and Forge - Curse Partnership.

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slowpoke

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Added for clarity: When we talk about a curse client in this post. The Curse client is an installer and not a launcher. The principle difference being that Curse will never ask you for your username or password and will instead pass you through to the Vanilla Launcher once and modpacks, texture packs or maps have been installed.

This is a short post that is being made in order to announce that an agreement has been reached to form a partnership between Minecraft Forge, FTB and Curse. The main focus of this deal will be for members of all teams to come together to continue to develop CurseForge into a platform designed to become the number one place for the distribution of mods. It will also be the goal to develop and release a completely new installer under the Curse name that will tap into CurseForge.

Whilst this partnership will involve several major changes to both Forge and FTB, it should be noted that the ownership of Forge and FTB will remain in their current hands. Having said that, there are several changes that affect both communities that we wish to make in order to help facilitate the main goals of our objective.

The details of these changes are summarised below.

LexManos and I will be joining Curse in advisory roles, working mainly on the design of both CurseForge and the new Curse Client.

With regards to FTB, our plan is at some point in the future to halt development of the current FTB installer and shift our modpacks onto the new Curse Client. The stated timeline for this is tentatively set at 6 months, however this is not fixed and the reality is that we will make this shift once the functionality of the Curse Client matches the FTB installer in terms of support for FTB packs, Third Party packs and support for both maps and texture packs.

The shifting of the FTB forums onto a Curse site, at this stage it is looking likely that you will access the FTB forums directly from MinecraftForum.net. The idea is not (as some people seem to have been confused about this) to merge our forums into the minecraft forums, but rather to access the FTB forums through the minecraftforum.net site. Whilst there will be a revamp of the site to bring us in line with other Curse Forums, the layout and moderation team for the FTB forums will remain the same. Our goal will be to move all existing posts over to the new forums if possible. This timeline is also tentatively set at six months again however, this is a soft timeline and in reality, the move will happen once everything is in place for the move to occur smoothly.

With regards to FTB Modpacks, the current team plan to stay on and continue to work on and develop new packs moving forwards. Having said that, we will be facing much more competition. Part of the medium term goals for this project is to make the construction of mod packs much easier for everyone, which means that the actual quality of mod packs will only go up. This will be most apparent once the changes from Minecraft version 1.7+ become more readily used by mod developers.

With regards to Forge, the goal will be move the primary distribution of Forge to the CurseForge network (This will only happen once an appropriate backend is in place). It is important to note that whilst the plan is to distribute Forge through the CurseForge network, it will remain completely independent and remain an open source project. The only thing that will change is where you download Forge from. The timeline for this is not laid down but rather this will occur once the backend that is required is in place.

It is also planned to move the Minecraft Forge forums over onto Curse servers. These forums will probably undergo a similar revamp bringing them in line with other Curse sites. Again the actual layout and moderation of this site will remain the same as it currently is.

Moving onto the question of why we are doing this. This has not been a rush decision on anyone’s part. Discussions regarding this began back in October last year. During this time we have spoken to and consulted with members of both the modding community and players themselves to get their input on the possibilities that arise with this partnership. The idea of having a central location that is designed to facilitate the needs of both Mod Developers and Mod Users in mind is no small thing. Everyone that we have spoken to agrees that if done right it can only be a good thing for the entire community.

With regards to moving FTB packs onto the Curse Client, one of the issues that we have always had is that whilst the team that we have on the current installer is awesome, they are constrained by the reality of real life getting in the way of development. Both Unv and Jjw have large commitments in real life now that have served to slow down development somewhat on our own installer. The Curse Client however will have a full professional team behind it, and our goal is to make the Client at least as good as our own (if not much better) It will however continue to have all the functionality of both the current FTB installer but also the planned features of our new installer.

This does not mean that we are halting development on our new installer and a version of it is still planned to be released. It is also important to note that with regards to the distribution of the Curse Client and the distribution of mods and mod packs through the Curse Client, these will all continue to be totally free of charge for the end user.

The FTB store remains independent of this deal and our plan is still to open this up to allow mod developers to sell merchandise through the store.

Our current timeline has us aiming to have myself and LexManos head over to the Curse offices some time at the end of this month to meet up with members of the Curse team to start to lay out plans of how we want to move forward. With this in mind, we recently held a small closed meeting with several mod developers to get a good indication of the sorts of features they would want to see in a site set up for the distribution of mods. This is only the beginning and I want to get at least 2 more open forums set up (one targeting mod developers and one targeting end users) to give more people input on this subject before we head over to the Curse offices.

Before closing, I want to make a small personal statement about this. Both Lex and I have spoken about this extensively, both between ourselves and with other people. It should be made clear that it was important for all of us (FTB, Forge and Curse) that this be a community driven project. Whilst our goal will be to have people use the Curse Client to download mods and mod packs, we want people to do that because the Curse Client is the best and not because you're forced to. We have already discussed the subject of other launchers and it is important that they not be frozen out of this. If we want CurseForge to be the primary location for the downloading of mods, then this means that everyone should be able to download from there. Measures will be added to CurseForge to allow this to happen.

It is important to note that whilst members of FTB will be working on this, this is not an FTB project. One of the reasons I went into this deal in the first place is that Curse is independent. I am not really interested in a project that from a technical point of view favours FTB over other launchers. This is partially why the focus of FTB will switch from being a launcher to being a modpack creator.

Having spoken to several members of Curse Management, I am confident that we are all going into this partnership with the goal of making a really good place for the distribution of mods and I am looking forwards to helping to make it a great experience for mod developers and end users alike.
 
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slowpoke

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Jul 29, 2019
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There will be a live stream later this evening where we will do a Q and A session to answer any questions people may have. This will be at twitch.tv/slowpoke101. There isnt a set time yet but will be roughly 2-3 hours from now.
 

rio44

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Jul 29, 2019
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The transition from community to corporation might be difficult, but if you can avoid the temptations of monetary gain then I think this will benefit everyone involved, the players, mod devs, and FTB team.
 

SeanWcom

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I expect there will be a lot of gnashing of teeth in response to this. I see it as a good thing though. A couple key points that people need to make sure they don't miss in your post:

First, Curse is backed by money. Full time employees who's day-job is to do this stuff that you guys do on the side right now (with regards to launcher development). This is definitely a good thing.

Second, not mentioned until near the end of the post - you aren't trying to cut out other launchers. You (FTB) are essentially becoming pack creators and Curse will be making the platform available to all.

Looking forward to seeing how things pan out!
 

matpower123

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Jul 29, 2019
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I wonder what will happen with the "modpack perms" stuff after that shift.
Wait and see I guess. :p
 

Redlotus99

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Jul 29, 2019
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If this makes it so we can add mods at will to the packs and we can get updates quicker I think this will be a good thing. I started playing Minecraft using FTB and never tried Vanilla and I have moved away from FTB because it tends to not move to the newer versions of Minecraft as quickly as I'd like, yet most of the mods I use do. So I now create my own private mod packs, but if there was a way to have updated mods delivered more quickly and using the more recent versions of Minecraft this would be a great step forward. Not having to wait on a pack for months even though the mods have updated would be a great thing!

Good luck moving forward.
 

Esheon

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Jul 29, 2019
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Sounds interesting. SeanWcom makes some good points, and I'm cautiously optimistic about it. I know this is a lot of work for you guys.
 

Vircomore

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Jul 29, 2019
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My biggest concern is the threat of Curse Premium.

"Here's your modpack! Enjoy updating each mod individually. Oh, you want to update your whole pack automatically? That'll be 2.50$ a month."

I'm all for supporting the developers, but I'd like to do that of my own volition - and if I have to pay for any of the features that the current launcher provides free-of-charge and free-of-ads, I'll be looking elsewhere for my modpacks.
 

smbarbour

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Jul 29, 2019
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If this makes it so we can add mods at will to the packs and we can get updates quicker I think this will be a good thing. I started playing Minecraft using FTB and never tried Vanilla and I have moved away from FTB because it tends to not move to the newer versions of Minecraft as quickly as I'd like, yet most of the mods I use do. So I now create my own private mod packs, but if there was a way to have updated mods delivered more quickly and using the more recent versions of Minecraft this would be a great step forward. Not having to wait on a pack for months even though the mods have updated would be a great thing!

Good luck moving forward.
There are tools for this that have been around since before FTB, you need only ask around. (I won't plug my own stuff here.)
 

QueWhat

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Jul 29, 2019
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I must say that this is fascinating news. So in short summary (correct me if I am wrong):

  • Slowpoke and LexManos will be joining Curse in advisory roles.
  • Ownership of Forge and FTB will remain in their current hands.
  • Discussions have occurred since Oct. 2013, and will continue with future physical visits by Slowpoke and LexManos to Curse's main offices to meet the Curse team.
  • The FTB store remains independent of this deal and our plan is still to open this up to allow mod developers to sell merchandise through the store.

  • FTB Forums Changes:
    1. FTB Forums will be accessed through the MineCraftForums.net website in the future; but this does NOT mean that the FTB Forums will be combined with the Minecraft Forums.
    2. Attempts will be made to migrate all posts over to the new FTB Forums home.
    3. The moderation team will remain the same and Curse/Minecraft Forums staff will not be moderating the FTB Forums.
    4. There will be a 'revamp' of the FTB/ Forums in order to fit inline with the Curse Forums, but the layout will remain the same.
    5. Soft tentative timeline of 6 months.
  • FTB Launcher Changes / Curse Client:
    1. In the future, development on the FTB Launcher will cease, with the intention of being replaced by a future Curse Client.
    2. There will be a full time dedicated professional team working on the Curse Client.
    3. Plans still remain to release the new version of the FTB Launcher.
    4. Use of the Curse Client and future modpacks hosted on the Curse Client will remain free-to-use as has been with FTB.
    5. Goal is to ensure Curse Client will as good or better than the FTB Launcher.
    6. Plans to have the ability to download modpacks and mods from the Curse Client.
    7. Soft tentative timeline of 6 months for Curse Client implementation.
  • FTB ModPack Changes:
    1. FTB will (in the future) focus on delivering only modpacks, rather than a Launcher and ModPacks.
    2. Once Curse Client/Launcher is ready, all FTB modpacks will be migrated to that launcher.
    3. Part of the medium term goals for this project is to make the construction of mod packs much easier for everyone, which means that the actual quality of mod packs will only go up.
  • Forge Changes:
    1. Move the primary distribution of Forge to the CurseForge network (once appropriate backend is ready.)
    2. No timeline set just yet.
    3. Forge will remain independent and open source.
 

Redlotus99

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Jul 29, 2019
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There are tools for this that have been around since before FTB, you need only ask around. (I won't plug my own stuff here.)

Yea I use them myself to create my own mod packs, but it would be great to back to FTB and have the ability to do this through things like the Curse Client.
 

xverion

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Jul 29, 2019
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My biggest concern would be curseforge's monetization affecting de ftb modpacks or putting mod updates behind a payment. This propably wont happen because i believe asking money for mods of modpacks is a violation of mojangs ToS. Still very excited to see how it goes :)
 

lcd

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Jul 29, 2019
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Lot of Google results involving WoW accounts being hacked and curse client, I hope curse client isn't in anyway involved with anything
 
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dirtybeatfreak

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Jul 29, 2019
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My biggest concern is the threat of Curse Premium.

"Here's your modpack! Enjoy updating each mod individually. Oh, you want to update your whole pack automatically? That'll be 2.50$ a month."

I'm all for supporting the developers, but I'd like to do that of my own volition - and if I have to pay for any of the features that the current launcher provides free-of-charge and free-of-ads, I'll be looking elsewhere for my modpacks.

This
 

QueWhat

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Jul 29, 2019
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What about Curse Premium and all the ads they run everywhere?

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if there will be ads of some sort, but I doubt there will be a requirement to subscribe to premium in order to obtain enhanced functionality, at least not at first. Keep in mind though, that in order to have a FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL TEAM working on the curse client they will need to make a profit somehow in order to justify the expense such a team brings. This is something FTB had planned to do individually, but clearly this is a much easier and smarted move by Slowpoke.
 

blek

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Jul 29, 2019
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I remember using Curse Client back when I played World of Warcraft for add-ons and, while the experience wasn't exactly bad, this might mean a downgrade feature-wise. Curse is always trying to push their premium services and I find it hard to believe they would try something like this without serious monetization schemes. I don't think it's going to be just ads either: possibly a limit to the number of simultaneous installed packs or, as WoW Curse Client used to work, having to update each mod individually. I suppose this also means the end for the launcher that was being developed this entire time. Quite a shame, really, I feel like things could have worked much better, but I guess it couldn't be helped, due to the priority conflicts of the current devs.
 

QueWhat

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I suppose this also means the end for the launcher that was being developed this entire time.

Not really, Slowpoke mentioned:

This does not mean that we are halting development on our new launcher and a version of it is still planned to be released. It is also important to note that with regards to the distribution of the Curse Client and the distribution of mods and mod packs through the Curse Client, these will all continue to be totally free of charge for the end user.
 
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